Vol. 6 No. 2
Winter 2001-2002
Reading Matters
publication of the SAN FRANCISCO GREAT BOOKS COUNCIL
By Wallis Leslie
Leader training will be held on Saturday, February 9 at the Metropolitan Club on Sutter Street in San Francisco from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. We will consider and practice the skills that enhance Great Books discussions.
We need leaders: The Great Books endeavor to foster lively community discussion of challenging literary works needs your energy and your involvement to meet the needs of the steadily growing participation in local groups, one-day events, the poetry retreat, the long novel weekend, and the Asilomar weekend.
But what about your needs, you ask. You probably already have too much to do, too many commitments. You will find that developing skills in listening and textual analysis sharpens your appreciation of the works you read and the conversations you have. And sharing these skills with others is just plain fun!
Secure your spot at our next leader training event—space limited:
· Tips for effective leadership
· Generating intriguing questions
· Helping the group stay focused
Send the information below, and a check for $10.00 made out to Great Books Council of San Francisco, to Wallis Leslie, 27240 Moody Rd., Los Altos Hills, CA 94022. For more information, call (650)941-6206 or e-mail mailto:whleslie@yahoo.com.
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A wonderful weekend of books, company and scenery is coming April 26 - 28 in Pacific Grove. “We still have rooms available,” says Registrar Jimmie Harvey, “in motels adjacent to the park. They are very nice,” she says, “and no farther away than the north Asilomar campus buildings.” To register, call Jimmie at (415)383-1319.
One of the best travel deals for the Monterey area, the weekend includes all meals, books, discussions, and parties. Asilomar has a nice woodsy feel yet is across the street from the ocean. It’s quite different from the huge hotels that dominate Monterey.
The readings are a comfortable blend of the familiar and the new. New is the philosophy selection, A General Theory of Love, called by the San Francisco Chronicle a “lovely furious book” that “invites comparisons to Oliver Sacks and Lewis Thomas.” The authors, Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, and Richard Lannon are MD’s and clinical psychologists. To quote the preface, “In this book, we demonstrate that where intellect and emotions clash, the heart often has the greater wisdom.”
A familiar friend is Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. Updated titles would perhaps be Death of a Stock Broker or Death of a Venture Capitalist.
Last year’s Ulysses participants will enjoy meeting Stephen Dedalus again in James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Joyce relives in Stephen his own crucial decisions to become a writer and leave Ireland. Although self-exiled to the South of France, Joyce could still remember every shop along certain streets in Dublin.
The poetry selections span the centuries: John Donne and Edgar Allan Poe, Yvor Winters, Allen Ginsberg, Pablo Neruda and Wislawa Szymborksa.
Tilden Park was a great new location for the annual picnic, meeting, and discussion June 24. About 50 people enjoyed a beautiful day in the golden summer hills between Orinda and Oakland.
Rob Calvert organized the event with the help of John and Cathy Kazan and Vince Scardina. Co-President of the Council Barbara McConnell said the new location worked out great and will be kept for the 2002 event, June 23. She said the council is looking for a replacement for Rob as he has recently taken over the web site from Mark Scardina, the busy father of twins.
At the annual meeting last year's slate was reelected for a second term. The officers are Co-Presidents, Barbara McConnell and Erma Browning; Vice President, Brian Mahoney; Secretary, Roy Harvey; Treasurer, Grace Dennison; Past President Rick White. Area Coordinators are Sacramento, Chuck Scarcliff; Sonoma, Jim Carbone; Marin, Roy & Jimmie Harvey and Shirley Mortensen; San Francisco, Vince Scardina; Peninsula, Erma Browning; Tri-Valley, Lou Alanko; East Bay, Kathleen Conneely. Leader Trainer is Wallis Leslie, replacing Tom Cox, who resigned. Chairing events are Brent Browning, Asilomar; open, Annual Meeting; Louise DiMattio, Long Novel; Mary Wood, Poetry. Other council members are Jack Stavert, who handles insurance; Jan and Tom Vargo, bulk mailing ; Mary Wood, newsletter editor. Beatrice Petrocchi, Dean Tinney, Mary Stuart and Yuan Chang are members-at-large.
Tom Cox, Barbara McConnell, and Wallis Leslie led the book discussions of The Sibyl.
A fine Saturday evening of entertainment accompanied by the appropriate drink—sangria—highlighted a successful novel weekend at Walker Ranch in Marin August 25 and 26. Bill Jones gave an illustrated talk about the historical background for Don Quixote (written in 1605), including the art of the era. Bill is William Corbett Jones, professor of music at San Francisco State University and Louise DiMattio’s husband. John Petrovsky, who teaches at Marin Academy, asked for volunteers at lunch to come to a rehearsal and put on skits in the evening. He brought costumes and props—helmets, sword, and big big shirt for Sancho. Skits included Sancho and his wife and Quixote’s death.
John teaches Don Quixote to third year Spanish students. Fourth year students put on plays in Spanish. The skits were read from the book; the hilarity came from the acting, which ranged from disingenuous to ham.
An outstanding participant was Henri du Charme, who as the apple-chewing, sword waving Sancho added some impromptu lines of his own. Other participants were Hilary Zim, Janet Banff, and Gary Geltemeyer.
Louise DiMattio and Mary Stuart organized the event with Mary taking on the detail-intensive job of registrar. Wallis Leslie found leaders and held the prediscussion where leaders work up questions. Leaders were Louise, Wallis, Chuck Scarcliff, Claudia O’Callaghan, Kathleen Conneely, Gary Geltemeyer, Nancy Wortman, and Mary Wood.
It was also delightful to see former Coordinator Jan Fussell.
“We loved the wildlife, too!” said Louise. Walker is a working ranch complete with cows. Since the weather was great, many people sat outside for meals. Although many of the structures looked like metal huts, the bedrooms were attractively furnished. The discussion sessions were held in school-like settings.
“We’ve already ready voted to try to that get the location next year for Crime and Punishment.” says Louise. Next year’s weekend is will be held August 24 and 25, 2002. Sixty people registered for this year’s event, and more can be accommodated.
Editor’s Note: I can see in my mind the face of the charming actress who played Sancho’s wife, but I can’t find her name. Let me know, and I will put it in the next newsletter.
Also, I am soliciting a review of Don Quixote for the next newsletter.
Thirty-three enjoyed a rainy November weekend at Westminster retreat in Alamo talking about Beowulf, haiku, and a selection of poems (the Potpourri). Improvements such as new carpet and curtains in the infamous horse stalls made for a more comfortable stay.
The Beowulf translation by Seamus Heaney was a quick-moving story. The side-by-side text showed how much language has changed from Anglo Saxon. (Ann Longknife brings the centuries closer together in an article below.)
A haiku is a formal Japanese poem of three lines, 17 syllables, usually 5 – 7 – 5. Haiku uses images from nature paired with human scenes (As defined at Studio Tormad Byrn at http://oaks.nvg.org/an2ra2.html - top).
Leaders for the weekend were Steve Doherty, Gary Geltemeyer, Mary Wood, Claudia O’Callaghan, Brent Browning, Kathleen Conneely, Ruth Korn, and Wallis Leslie (twice).
Ruth Korn served as registrar and was aided by Kathleen Conneely who came early and set up for the event. Other committee members were Wallis Leslie, who quadrupled as leader trainer, discussion leader, caterer of the morning snack, and organizer of the beer & wine & crackers & salsa party. In the evening, in front of a wood fire Kathleen Conneely led a haiku- writing session.
Other committee members are Brent Browning and Theda and Oscar Firschein. Mary Wood is chair. The event in 2002 will be held November 9-10.
At the annual meeting and picnic, Par Lagerkvist’s The Sibyl was discussed. “I find the novel an angry squaring off at god in general and giving him his comeuppance,” says leader Tom Cox. “It has really good writing in it, challenging character studies, and moving description. But I felt I am being had, that it was a polemic against god or religion.”
In the story, two unnamed individuals who have betrayed unnamed gods meet atop a mountain and tell their stories to each other. The woman is clearly a sibyl dedicated to Apollo. The man is the Wandering Jew, a homeowner who was cursed forever when he yelled at a convict leaning his cross on his house. Tom Cox comments, “It seems a disproportionate punishment from a god known for love.”
Both the sibyl and the wanderer are cut off from humanity as well as from the god or gods. The sibyl was dedicated to the god as a young woman. Later she takes a human lover, becomes pregnant, and is run out of town. But after taking the lover she is raped in a trance by Apollo in the form of a goat. In horror she decides that her son, born mute and apparently an idiot, is Apollo’s son. At the end of the novel, the son disappears, his footsteps vanishing in the snow as if he were “a being who had lost all weight and had risen into space…”
Thus one son of God preaches to mankind and is crucified; the second is mute and is taken up to heaven.
The Wandering Jew hates god but the sibyl says of Apollo: “I don’t know who he is. How then can I hate him? or love him?…. He is not as we are and we can never understand him. He is incomprehensible, inscrutable. He is god.”
A powerful sense of mystery infuses the book, but there are no answers. The fate of the two characters inspires us with gratitude for a simple life and human friends—and human enemies rather than divine. As Tom Cox says, “There was almost nothing merciful from these so-called gods.”
By Rob Calvert
Editor's Note: In the May 14, 2001 issue of The New Republic Mario Vargas Llosa writes "The Premature Obituary of the Book: Why Literature?" Vargas Llosa writes passionately about literature--and provocatively. He writes that literature has become "more and more a female activity," deplores specialization of knowledge as leading to a lack of social understanding, asserts that science and technology cannot play an integrating role in our society, and angrily quotes Bill Gates avowal that before he dies he will put an end to paper and books. The article can be found at www.thenewrepublic.com by inserting the author’s name at search. The following is from e-mail, Rob Calvert to Rick White:
Thanks for mentioning Mario Vargas Llosa's article in The New Republic, which I read with interest. It was certainly thought provoking, and I share his goals, I think, although I disagreed with him on many points. In particular, his horror of the e-book and other uses of the computer seem misplaced; I think he's confusing the medium with the message (regardless of what Marshall McLuhan said). Also, he's too single-focused, dwelling on poetry and the novel alone as the saviors of civilization, ignoring (for instance) drama, music, and the visual arts. Attempts to express literature in several media simultaneously, like opera, television and the movies, deserve our respect as well. Unquestionably, books stimulate the imagination, since the bare bones of words on paper force the reader to provide his/her own images. But visual and musical effects, when integrated properly with a work of literature, can provide a much more powerful emotional experience. Besides being potentially more pleasurable for the reader/viewer/listener, such an experience can deliver a work's message at a more visceral level, and thus more effectively.
To put it another way, writing off TV as nothing but soap operas is equivalent to writing off the novel as nothing but pulp bodice-rippers.
Vargas Llosa's "look how literature has changed history" argument is cogent, I think, but here too he seems to have gone too far. As far as I can tell, his claim is that literature “alone” has effected history's major social changes, and he disparages non-fiction writing. To cite just one counter-example, the voyage of the Beagle has had a much more influential role on social history than the voyages of, say, Gulliver or Ahab, or even that of Ulysses. Maybe Vargas Llosa needs to take the following self-test, which is currently making the rounds on the internet.
Editor’s Note: Here are a few quotes from the test for Self-Test for Literature Abusers by Michael McGrorty:
· “I read rapidly, often 'gulping' chapters.”
· ”I have sometimes passed out from a night of heavy reading.”
· ”I have spent money meant for necessities on books instead.”
· “I have attempted to check out more library books than permitted.”
· “Most of my friends are heavy fiction readers.”
The copyrighted test can be found on the home page of the American Literature Abuse Society, http://toniaizu.home.netcom.com/d09.html and at McGrorty’s own, http://www.tiac.net/users/cri/abuse.html.
Angel Island usually seems like a world away from everything, but “I was a basket case,” says Louise DiMattio, after a hectic trip through traffic because of the Bay to Breakers race, May 20. It took a little time for the serenity of Angel Island to work its magic.
After a picnic lunch, Claudia O’Callaghan and Tom Cox led discussions at the picnic tables. It was a little hard to hear, said Claudia, so the organizers may not pick this location again, or says Louise, the Bay to Breakers date. Event organizers were Fiona Humphrey, Claudia O’Callaghan, and Vince Scardina.
Appropriately, the reading was “The Island,” a short story by Gustav Herling from Living with the Past, a volume in the Great Books 50th anniversary series. The island in the story has a claustrophobic quality as the fates of the characters are worked out. The people seem detached from the rest of the world, as if their lives were lived without connection to the outside world -- not a common feeling here since September 11!
The next mini-event is scheduled for October 26 at the Metropolitan Club to discuss Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw and other stories.
Editor’s Note: If anyone knows a free or very cheap venue where movies could be shown for a book-movie discussion, please let me know.
By Ann Longknife
Would that Beowulf could sail over the seas from Geatland to slay the evil monster. At first our group at Poetry Weekend discussed the beauty of the poem and the translation, puzzling over some of the arcane words Seamus Heany retained (such as hirpling—meaning to walk with great pain). We then moved on to the question of its relevance—and found many parallels to what is going on in the world hundreds of years later.
Our leaders (like Hrothgar) have built magnificent mead halls (the World Trade towers and the Pentagon). The monster (Osama binLaden) saw them and struck, killing thousands of followers, then hid in the mere (the caves of Afghanistan). We have tried to employ our mightiest weapons, bombs (as did Beowulf try to use the sword), but they do not get the monster. We will have to resort to hand-to-hand combat. We hope we are as successful. If we do manage to slay the monster, let’s hope his mother (other Moslem nations) doesn’t decide to avenge him.
And if we manage to defeat the monster and his mother, how about the other monsters? The hidden hoard (oil) still lies in territory controlled by potential monsters. How much can be taken before they decide to defend their hoard? If they do not get restive and we have to fight yet again, will there be a Wiglaf to help us?
What does it all mean? Is Beowulf a forecast of the future? Is it just a coincidence that so much of the poem is relevant to what’s going on now? Should we be reading this kind of significance in to a poem written so long ago?
Literature lasts because it speaks the truth to future generations. It does not exist in isolation, simply to be admired. The lessons of human conduct and its outcomes have been relevant throughout history and literature has often shown us in fiction what exists in the world around us. (We see ourselves hesitate like Hamlet or believe that being well liked is the answer, as does Willy Loman.) Beowulf does the same. We can read it as the wonderful work that it is and be delighted with the poetry and the imagery. We can rejoice that Beowulf was able to rule successfully for 50 years and protect his adopted people from harm during that time.
It would be nice to stop there. We need to remember what happens at the end. It tells us more about the real world. No matter how many monsters we slay, there are others. Life moves on and we must keep the monsters in control—and if we get old we can hope for help from the younger generation. We need to remember, however, that the monsters are there. They probably won’t all go away.
We can pray that a Beowulf will come to our rescue.
by Ron Kihara
I've spoken with Russians about this book, most memorably at dinner with Paul Damrow and two of his Russian friends, Helen and Kostya. We had a four-hour conversation in English about the book, which they had read in Russian, while I had read it in English. One interesting thing they brought up was Bulgakov's use of color. In the first chapter, much is made of the word "black" or "chorny" in Russian, a word similar to the word for devil or "chort." To a Russian it is immediately obvious that Woland is the devil. Pilate's cape is another example: it was red with a white lining. Red for a Russian is the color of life (blood), and white is the color of death, so Pilate's cloak symbolized his power of life and death.
My Russian instructor, Larissa Mann, pointed out that many of the puzzling occurrences in the novel are satiric jabs at the Soviet system, obvious if you've lived in it. She also took the time to read the translation by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor, and pronounced it excellent. She said it was actually easier to read the English version than the Russian version, which she said was written in very difficult literary style and much darker in tone.
I've never thought Chekhov humorous, and it surprises me that in America, we interpret "The Three Sisters," and other plays humorously. I've often suspected that this arises from a cultural misunderstanding, so I've asked every Russian I've met or know and even an American educated in Russia, whether or not they think Chekhov's writings are humorous. Responses have been 100% negative. My Russian instructor told me that they consider many of his short stories humorous, but that his plays are considered tragedies. Larissa said that she had attended many performances of Chekhov's plays at the MXT (The Moscow Conservatory Theater), which specializes in Chekhov much like the D’Oyly Carte specialized in Gilbert and Sullivan. She never once heard a laugh or chuckle; everyone was crying at the end of the performance. Another illuminating comment was that Russians often compare Chekhov's short stories to O'Henry’s, but they are shocked by the American response to O’Henry. They are especially disturbed when they see Americans laughing or smiling in response to a reading of "The Gift of the Magi." Larissa says it will reduce a room full of Russian men and women to tears.
Editors note: These items from Ron Kihara’s Walnut Creek newsletter whetted my interest in the books.
By Barbara McConnell and Erma Browning
And so 2001 comes to an end. Although there were many happy times, I’m sure we will all be glad to have this year behind us. Barbara recently read The Twilight of American Culture by Morris Berman, who contends that it is not a matter of “if” American culture will collapse, but a matter of “when.” He did offer some rays of hope for our survival, among which was the Great Books discussion program. He buys into Robert Hutchins’ ideas regarding the need for exploring our cultural history and says, “…the Great Books program is really a way of life, not a database”; the implication is that one must learn and grow as a culture grows and that using the wisdom of our thinkers is an appropriate way to do this. So we move into 2002 with renewed enthusiasm to keep our program moving forward by providing a multitude of discussion groups, events and activities through the year to retain members and reach new people. There are a great number of volunteers currently working with the council to meet these goals. Please join us.
Happy Holidays to all!
By Mary Wood
Kathleen Conneely led a two-hour haiku writing session at Poetry Weekend which provides a model for a non-threatening group experience in writing. I found it cathartic as well and believe it could also be used as a low-key writing-for-therapy session.
First Kathleen quieted the group with a tape of Robert Hass speaking on poetry and quoting haiku. Then she lead a short relaxation exercise to get us to “forget about car payments, taxes and grocery shopping and get in state of inward tranquility, shut out everything that takes our energies away and focus on letting our observations and experiences surface.”
Next was a four-part exercise in getting material. Kathleen suggested nature as a topic because so much of the haiku we had read and analyzed in the discussion session touched on nature. Haiku usually link two ideas, phrases, segments or images, sometimes disparate. Haiku are short, which means less to write but also requires condensation of thought.
She asked us to jot down a few words for the following:
Past:
Something in the past from nature—such as watching a hawk.
Something in the past with human nature. For example, one haiku line from the day’s discussion described a man in the field giving directions using a radish.
Present:
Something more vivid, current about nature—the sky perhaps.
The same for human nature.
“Now that you have the subject matter that interests you,” she continued “the last part is to add form.” She suggested three lines but not to be concerned whether it was 17 syllables or not.
After spending about 15 minutes writing, we broke up into groups of three to share our writing. A comfortable buzz rose in the room. Then we posted our haiku, with only initials, on large strips of butcher paper Kathleen had taped around the room. Afterwards we went around the room reading other’s poems. Many people had written two, and one person, four!
By Jack Stavert
For reading on the forces at work in the current conflict, three good foundational books are Eric Hoffer’s The True Believer (Harper & Row, 1951), Samuel P. Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (Simon & Schuster, 1996; Avon, 1993), and Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last Man (Free Press, 1992).
On the Middle East, anything by Bernard Lewis is useful, especially The Middle East--A Brief History of the last 2,000 Year (Scribner,1995; Touchstone, 1997), and The Shaping of the Modern Middle East (Oxford, 1994). On Islam as it manifests itself in modern times, Arab Awakening & Islamic Revival--The Politics of Ideas in the Middle East by Martin Kramer, and from our most recent Noble Laureate in literature, V. S. Naipaul, Among the Believers--An Islamic Journey (Vintage, 1982) and his follow-up reportage in Beyond Belief--Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples (Vintage, 1999). Bernard Lewis also has an excellent article “The Revolt of Islam” in the November 19, 2001 New Yorker (page 50).
Rick White is compiling a reading list on war and conflict for his Berkeley group, including Thucydides’ Melian dialogue (Introduction to Great Books, First Series). If you have suggestions or wish a copy, contact him at (501)527-3762 or RWWHITE@aol.com
February 9 Leader Training: Metropolitan Club, S.F. Contact Wallis Leslie (650)941-6206
April 26-28 Asilomar: Asilomar, Pacific Grove. Contact Jimmie Harvey (415)388-1319
June 23 Annual Meeting: Tilden Park Berkeley. Contact Barbara McConnell (707)829-5643
(Interested in helping? Call Barbara)
Aug. 24-25 Long Novel: Walker Creek Ranch, Marin Contact Mary Stuart (707)575-1984
October 26 Mini-Retreat: Metropolitan Club, S.F. Contact Fiona Humphrey (415)928-2028
Nov. 9-10 Poetry Weekend: Westminster Retreat, Alamo. Contact Mary Wood (510)865-3481
Barbara McConnell & Erma Browning, Co-Presidents; Brian Mahoney, Vice-President; Roy Harvey; Secretary; Grace Apple Dennison, Treasurer; Rick White, Past President.
Reading Matters Publisher, Rick White; Editor, Mary Wood, 1001 Shoreline Drive #207, Alameda, CA 94501
e-mail marylwood@prodigy.net Council website: www.greatbooks-sf.com National website: www.greatbooks.org